Introduction
Hello and welcome to a new series of flight reviews. Taking advantage of being in Europe for the summer, we flew short-haul between the south of France and Scotland for a long weekend. While I've flown Club Europe many times over the years, this would be my first time trying Club on a domestic flight within the UK since it was introduced a few years ago—previously, only Economy was sold within the UK.
Routing
Flights in this series:
Flight routing
- 1BA377 - Business - Toulouse ✈ London - Airbus A319
- 2BA1436 - Business - London ✈ Edinburgh - Airbus A319
- 3BA1455 - Business - Edinburgh ✈ London - Airbus A320
- 4BA376 - Business - London ✈ Toulouse - Airbus A320
Transit & Lounge
Thanks to our early arrival into Heathrow, and our aircraft parking at one of the central gates at the main terminal, it gave us enough time to head to the lounge before our next flight.
It helped that there was no queue for the E-Gates at the UK Border. Is it just me or are they working better this year? I remember the past few years they were going down all the time, but it seems it's been better lately.
Even though we used the transit security lanes with the new machines, we still had to take out toiletries, which was a brand new policy at the time as it wasn't the case less than 2 weeks prior, when we'd last transited at T5.
Still it was quick, and off we were to the South Lounges.
I like how BA mobile boarding passes are colour-coded based on the passenger's frequent flyer status: Golden for BA Gold status (Emerald) and Silver for BA Silver (Sapphire). This makes it easy for BA agents at the entrance to the South Lounges to direct passengers either left for the First Lounge, or right for the Club Lounge.
The familiar horse lamps are always there to greet travellers to the First Lounge.
I covered this lounge many times in past reviews so I won't go into much detail. It was pleasantly uncrowded on that Thursday morning.
As we often do, we headed past the bar to the terrace area.
While not quite outdoors, it's nice and open and airy. Though be warned, on a sunny summer day, it can get quite warm there being that it's an open space in what is essentially a greenhouse.
We found a nice place to sit in a quiet corner.
Luckily there's plenty of chilled champagne to keep cool in the summer heat.
Though I wasn't hungry after eating on the inbound flight, I checked out the buffet. It was the usual breakfast fare at this morning hour, which is pretty decent. Everything was there to put together a full English breakfast, as well as some fruit and lighter items. There was also an omelette bar where a cook made fresh omelettes with ingredients of one's choosing.
Soon enough it was time to head to the gate…it was beginning to be too warm in the terrace area anyway.
Boarding
As the gate was located on the north side of the terminal, we made sure to leave the lounge 10 minutes before boarding as we had to traverse the full length of the terminal from the South lounges.
Boarding was just about to begin as we arrived. I was also happy to see a children's play area by the gate.
Right before boarding, passengers in Groups 1 and 2 were asked to queue up in the Priority lanes. Boarding groups 1 and 2 are comprised of Business class and oneworld Emeralds + Sapphires. Unsurprisingly, there were many passengers with priority boarding on this important domestic route between capital cities.
Boarding began about on time. There were nice views of our little A319 on the way down to the jet bridge.
Oh good, this A319 is equipped with Wi-Fi, unlike the A319 on the inbound flight from Toulouse.
I could also see right away that there was power under the seats. As a general rule, the BA A319s with Wi-Fi also have in-seat power. There may be some exceptions with the ex-BMI A319s, however.
All other A320 family aircraft in the BA fleet have both Wi-Fi and in-seat power—this is a particularity of the A319 fleet only. I assume part of the reasoning for not upgrading certain A319s is that older frames are meant to be retired soon, but I could be wrong. Just be aware that it's a coin toss as to whether you'll have these amenities on A319s.
I didn't have far to go as I'd been able to grab seats in the coveted 1st row, which is typically reserved for BA Gold members.
There were 5 rows of Club on this flight with every seat taken. It's hard to believe that these flights operated in all-Economy configuration just a few years ago. There's obviously a healthy amount of premium demand.
The iconic Speedmarque adorns the bulkhead on the A/C side.
As the in-seat power is under the legs in the first row—unlike other rows where it's visible under the seats in front—there is a convenient sign on the bulkhead wall indicating the power's location.
Note that the sockets are only switched on after takeoff, usually at the same time as the Wi-Fi.
With such good legroom, it's no wonder row 1 is so popular. Legroom is tight in every other row of Club with a 30" pitch, which is marginally better than the 29" pitch found in Economy aft of the overwing exits.
Once again, cabin crew welcomed us onboard with a friendly "welcome back." I was pleasantly surprised to see printed menus on a flight this short!
The Flight
Boarding wrapped up on time on this completely full flight, and we pushed back shortly after the doors were closed.
Taxiing past all the terminals, I caught a glimpse of the Delta Team USA livery—that made two Delta Olympic liveries seen in just a few hours.
Always weird to see Air Canada narrowbodies on this side of the Atlantic!
There was a bit of a queue for takeoff as it was quite busy.
The Wi-Fi was available once we were above 10,000 ft in altitude.
There is no streaming in-flight entertainment, unfortunately, but there are some helpful things available through the Wi-Fi portal, like the buy-on-board food & drink menu for economy passengers as well as a digital version of the BA Highlife in-flight magazine.
Full streaming-capable Wi-Fi is available for £4.99.
The messaging-only plan costs £1.99
However, messaging is free for BA Executive Club members.
I was even able to do some very light internet browsing through the free messaging plan.
As the flight was less than an hour in the air, cabin crew sprang into action taking orders as soon as we levelled out.
Being in row 1, we had first pick. I went for the prawns, as it sounded good.
Prawn cocktail
avocado and sour cream timbale, Marie Rose sauce
Strawberries & cream panna cotta
Nice quality, well-presented, and tasty. A perfect light meal for a short flight.
It was nice and sunny for most of the flight.
The friendly cabin crew were hard-working and attentive. With a full cabin, of 20 passengers, they managed to serve all meals and do several drink top ups with less than an hour in the air.
The landscape got progressively more mountainous as we reached Scotland.
I was impressed with how large Edinburgh looked from the air.
The city is in a beautiful natural setting between sea and mountains.
The beaches of Portobello look surprisingly nice with that beautiful emerald water. Though I imagine the sea temperature is absolutely freezing.
We made a turn for landing with gorgeous views of Edinburg. I'd picked seats on the good side of the aircraft without knowing it!
Arthur's Seat dominates the landscape around the city centre.
Arrival
We landed on time despite the long taxi time in London.
Edinburgh has definitely before a popular destination from the US as I saw United, Delta, and JetBlue aircraft on the ground at the same time (American Airlines will also begin flying to EDI from summer 2025)
Welcome to Edinburgh!
As it was a domestic flight, there were no formalities on arrival. With only cabin baggage, we headed out of the terminal towards the rental car centre.
Whoa…ummm, what happened to summer?? It was windy and 12C/53F outside. What a sharp contrast from the warm temperatures in London, and even more so with the south of France! No problem, I don't really mind the cold and it was a nice break from the heat (though a tad bit warmer would have been nice).
After picking up the rental car, we drove straight away to the Highlands on the West Coast, ready to start our chilly Scottish adventure!
Hi Kevin, thanks for sharing this intra-UK report. For a ~500km flight, there is little to fault with their service. Considering the train is probably still 4-5h, flying is still very much competitive for the premium traffic even taking into consideration the dead time.
Even more reason to avoid LHR for transits, heard some bad stories from people recently about missing connections due to the complete mess at transit security with the rocky roll out of this policy. I also don’t know what they were thinking forcing connecting passengers to merge into the normal security with passengers originating in LHR.
And 2 options for main! Completely understandable to both be cold dishes given the flight time. The main looks very fresh and light showing how easy it can be for US carriers to just try and make an effort like AC to provide something substantial on shorter flights.
Surprised you didn’t just go straight into INV^^ So much greener up north than the dead grass at LHR...
Hey! Thanks for your comments!
Yeah it's just nuts that there's no HSR between London and Edinburgh, or heck there's barely any HSR in the UK period, which is even weirder.
Security at Heathrow is just such a nightmare. The regular x-ray machines are soooo terribly slow. Those queues move at a molasses pace. The lanes with the new machines were, for a short period, pretty fast, but boom, now this new rule came and F'ed it all up! It's still a bit faster to go through the lanes with the new machines, but it's hit or miss if you can actually use one of those lanes. With as much as I transit as LHR I can honestly say the majority of agents there have a chip on their shoulder and love to power trip if you try to use the "faster" lanes when they want you in another queue. I just hate that there's no designated Fast Track lane when you're transiting! Ok...sorry, rant over haha
BA do a great job here. They truly made an effort on the passenger experience for such a short flight.
Haha yes, we purposely did EDI R/T since we wanted to visit Edinburgh as well. But next time we go up, we'll likely fly into INV that was we can explore further north like the Isle or Sky or Orkney.
Thanks for stopping by!
Excellent report! This looks like a solid short-haul experience with British Airways.
I always find European business class reviews fascinating, especially since I’m more familiar with traditional business class seats, like those in Australia, rather than the economy-style seats with a blocked middle.
The meal looks high-quality, beautifully presented, and appetizing—perfectly suited for a short flight. Though light, it seems more than enough for a one-hour journey, with generous portions and delicious presentation!
Hi there, thanks for your comments!
European Business class is mostly disappointing compared to short-haul Business class within Australia. Catering may be slightly better in European business class, but obviously seats are much better in Australia. Still Euro-biz can be decent service-wise if you go in to the experience with lowered expectations. Also Euro-biz is usually much cheaper than short-haul Business class in Australia (or North America for that matter).
Yes, BA shine with the Do&Co catering within Europe. This is the highlight of the experience.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Hi Kevin, thanks for another nice report!
Hmmm, I see some pancakes and waffles as well. The lounge looks beautiful as always, BA seems to do a decent job on their Business and First lounges, minus sit down seating. In the B gates business lounge they have made to order items such as Bacon Sandwiches and such, was that the case here?
Interesting reflection to see this, since this route only had 5 rows of Business and the previous route from TLS had 3. I am guessing it is business men taking vacation, since I imagine the 4th of July is school holidays in the UK if I recall correctly.
It’s interesting to see this that they serve a meal to EDI, but not Paris (Hmmmmm) I guess it is longer distance wise. The offerings to EDI seem quite good, and the prawn cocktail looks lovely!
It’s intriguing to see just how much EDI has expanded over the years. I rememeber a while ago I was booking someone to go to NYC, and there was only one direct flight (was in winter) on that singular day. Now it seems that quite a few airlines fly there and B6 offers some attractive fares in mint (even better).
LOVE LOVE the tourism bonus of the highlands, thanks so much for sharing!
If you had found one, that would have made for the best tourism bonus the site has ever seen 😂.
Thanks for sharing this flight report, looking forward to the return!
Hey there, thanks for reading!
It's odd because I feel like they do better with their lounges in outstations than they do at their T5 hub. The First lounge is fine, but the Club lounges are very meh at T5 (Except for the one in B, which is nicer and less crowded IMO).
Yes, there was a station where a cook made omelettes and a few other egg-based things, including breakfast sandwiches.
Oh weird. I've had the "tea" service on CDG flights before with finger sandwiches. There's supposed to be a meal on all routes in Business class, at least a light meal on the very short flights. If you didn't get a meal on the Paris flight, I would think it was a one-off. At least I hope.
Yeah, Scotland's definitely gaining in popularity. Americans love going to Europe while staying in the English-speaking comfort zone.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hey Kevin, lovely to see you flying domestic here in the UK ! I loved the review as always. That lounge looks super elegant and I am glad it was not crowded when you visited. It is of course odd to see an Air Canada 738 at Heathrow - I can not see me ever flying such a small aircraft across the Atlantic ! The menucard is a nice touch and these are even given on Manchester flights where the flight time averages 30 minutes. Thank You for a lovely review and wishing you well always !
Hi there, thanks for your comments!
Wow, good on BA for doing a meal on a 30 minute flight!
Maybe in Business I would, but definitely not in Economy haha...a 737 feels too claustrophobic for a TATL flight...though I guess the St. John's flights are only about 5h long...still
Thanks!
Thanks mate for the next and scottish episode!
The lounge is quite nice and with not that much of a crowd - perfect!
The semi terrace area looks very nice, I wouldn't mind spending some time especially next to these fizzy bottles :p
such a nice livery, like the A359 special Delta livery too.
The food is fairly nice for a short domestic flight, especially comparing to what AF does.
My god what a view on the approach, it doesn't look like Scotland at all with that sun and translucid water!
Hey Chris! Oops, sorry didn't see your comment (was travelling...of, course, haha).
For sure...AF J on domestic flights seems quite unexciting, though I guess at least it's good it exists since AF didn't even offer J domestically a few years ago--much more consistent for connections to/from long-haul flights in J. But yeah, overall BA definitely have better service on similar short flights....AF probably do better on long-haul though.
Thanks for stopping by!
Indeed, 5 hours in Business Class on a 738 is great - but as for Economy, ciao !